The United Launch Alliance Delta 4 Medium+ (4,2) rocket lifted off at 12:52 a.m. EDT (0452 GMT) from Cape Canaveral for the Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program.

The program manager in charge of Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule program said Friday that additional checks would have uncovered problems with the spaceship’s software that plagued the craft’s first unpiloted orbital test flight in December, but he pushed back against suggestions that Boeing engineers took shortcuts during ground testing.

Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule flew into the wrong orbit soon after lifting off from Cape Canaveral on an unpiloted demonstration flight Friday morning, burning too much fuel and precluding the new commercial spaceship from docking with the International Space Station. Mission managers say the capsule will target an early landing in New Mexico Sunday.